Today I woke up, had two cups of coffee, I’m feeling wide awake. I feel like a motor filled with gas sitting with my old classmates. Enrry looks like a college boy. Eric looks red. We all sitting having coffee. I’m looking outside.

The first thing I see is the new Yankee Stadium. Looking at different faces. I say the world is crazy. Why do I say that? I say that because here I am with my old teacher and his friend, and Enrry and Eric, and I think I did the right thing in coming instead of being in the streets.

Chris M. (’07) initiated Sarah, a friend from work, and she followed—unknowingly—in the long tradition of secret philanthropers giving to their artistic friends so they can make more art. An excerpt from her write-up:

I am on my iphone, in a car with my parents, crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge. We are on our way to DC, where I grew up, to the Inauguration. This was much more difficult than I imagined. Everyone likes to get money. And for me it’s easy to spend money. If it’s in my wallet then I get to buy juice at the deli, and so on. But money in my wallet with a responsible trajectory, a sort of hundred dollar bill paper airplane with a hero for a captain, this was new. I was tempted to give it to the Jewish man on 14th street, who holds the sign that says, my wife and daughter died. But then I realized it would be a hot potato paper plane, possibly motivated by guilt, and that I needed to give it more thought. Then I got mad at myself for not being more resourceful, for not knowing resourceful people. What happened to my life? I used to work outside in shorts and now I buy juice from a deli. Frustrated and cranky, I thought about returning it to Chris. Finally, I am out with Sarah. We have just eaten an amazing meal. There is snow and the trees are beautiful. My boyfriend throws a snowball at us which nearly hits a Hasid who is wheeling a body into a building. A body! It takes me and Sarah a mutual minute to realize this, what with our talking and the snow and the nightsky. Plus, it could have been a long tray of cookies the ease with which he wheeled that body by us. There’s snow on the canvas which covers the body.  And for a moment we all smell death. This is a smell that stays in the nostrils. I decide right then and there, in a moment I tell some of my students to have, a be here now moment, that I’m giving the money to the person I’m standing with. We are alive, she’s also called Sarah, only she’s a graduate student and a curator and artist and a new friend. And Danish. She made her own wedding dress. I say, what would you do with one hundred dollars. Buy a small pig and house train it, she said. For serious, I said. Buy those feathers I always wanted, she said. But actually, she needs money to put towards a trip to Marfa, in West Texas. A curator’s paradise, to visit Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation.

Ramin (’07) and Hallie, a new member, recently faced the daunting task of writing, addressing, and sending a thank you note. They started reflecting on how easy and wonderful a practice it is, and how rarely it happens these days, so they bought $100 worth of thank you cards and stamps and handed them out to the folks in the room, inviting them to send someone a thank you note from their lives for anything that had been meaningful, even existence.

Felice (’07) initiated Monica, who took her challenge to heart and spirit. When Felice first told her about the society, Monica’s first image was of herself dropping the $100 in an offering basket. Later, as she walked around the city, chatted with friends, reflected on what she might do (all, by the way, improved for the group on party night as Monica is a woman of the theater), she kept wrestling with other ideas vs. this original image. Finally, at church, the basket went around and—gasp!—missed her entirely. She wondered if it wasn’t a sign, when all of the sudden the person who had volunteered to do the collecting gave her a knowing look and held the basket out toward her. She dropped the money in. Right before the party, still not sure if this was the right thing to do, Monica sat down next to a cute man at a bar and told him about the society. He said he was so inspired by her offering. Monica got his number.

Amy (’08) (who was initiated by Ramin of ’07) and Mike, a new member, decided that they wanted to use money itself as a medium for their reflections on giving. First they asked 100 of their dearest friends to send along some thought, image, emoticon that expressed their relationship to giving. Then they picked their 20 favorites and wrote them on five dollar bills. Then, like little economic Easter bunnies, they hid these bills all over New York City. One was hidden somewhere in the venue of the party, they explained, sneakily. We only found it upon leaving for the night; it was dropped in a little plastic slot for brochures right outside the theater. We left it there.

Chris R. (’07) initiated Ellen and Elisabeth, who used their $100 to create massive, warm, gooey amounts of lasagna (Elisabeth’s secret family recipe!). They then took this lasagna out on the freezing streets of New York City and passed it out far and wide. Ellen was wounded, but all survived and had fuller bellies because of the experience.

Jasika (’08) initiated Larry, who thought long and hard about the biggest loss during a downturn economy: fabulousness. He decided that he would use his $100 to bring back “the fabulous” in someone’s life. Larry could think of no one more deserving than one of his favorite companions, the old Puerto Rican lady who lives in his building. They watch telenovelas and drink tea together. He decided that he would get her nails done one week, her hair the next, and so on and so on, until she felt fully and undeniably fabulous despite the hard times. He promises pictures.

Hannah (’07) initiated Marci, who struggled with a lot of questions concerning giving and getting. An excerpt is on the blog. In the end, she decided to give her cousin, who had been struggling economically and raising kids on her own, the $100.

Vanessa, initiated by Courtney, immediately wanted to give her $100 to an organization that she had previously worked for: Girls for Gender Equity. She brainstormed a bunch of different forms of giving—she could buy everyone ice cream one day! But when she spoke to the Executive Director she urged Vanessa to give some kind of supplies for the afterschool program, which was in real need. Vanessa decided to buy $100 worth of journals and paste a quotation that was both simple enough for middle schoolers and still meaningful to her on the inside cover: “The greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make” (Truman Capote). The donation was given anonymously.

Noah, initiated by Chris R., also did an act of literary creative philanthropy. As a teacher in the South Bronx, Noah is often struck by how little time and energy he seems to help the nerds in the class, the ones who don’t demand a lot of attention, and are—for the most part—doing alright in school. So, he decided to pick out his three favorite nerds—Enry, Shakkur, Eric—and start a writer’s group with them. They will meet at the McDonalds near school—the best place to meet around the neighborhood—and do writing exercises and generally have fun together. Noah is thrilled, already, with the success: Shakur has seven brothers and is writing a story about a boy meeting death and Enrry is writing a story about the birth of his little nephew, born on MLK Day.

Sam and Ben, also initiated by Chris R., also acted in the literary philanthropic tradition. After much arguing, yoga breathing, and contemplation, they decided that it made the most sense to give their $100 to a talented friend as a commission for a short story. David Roth, we look forward to the resulting masterpiece.

Martha, Ben’s younger sister and a new member initiated by Courtney, also wanted to create some fire under her artist friends’ asses. She thought about giving ten artist friends $10, but then had a crisis of conscience. Shouldn’t her friends feel moved to make art without the monetary carrot of sorts? Doesn’t it sort of cheapen their instinct if it’s assumed that they’ll only be motivated by some money? Martha also remembered a time when she’d been forced to spend a lot of time in a children’s hospital and been horrified by the pathetic movie selection. As a film critic, she felt a critical moment was being wasted, not to mention a basic human right (good movies) being taken away from sick kids. So, after a little scheming, she figured out a way to put the two impulses together. She would donate 10 great movies to a children’s hospital, each in the name of one of her artist friends. Then she would tell those friends that a donation had been made in their name, and in exchange, she would appreciate if they would create a piece of art and send it to her. She will then send the art on to someone else, who will hopefully be inspired to create another piece of art and send it on to someone…and the cycle continues…

Claire, initiated by Jasika, saw an amazing film called Pariah about the struggle to grow up queer in an unaccepting community. Claire was particularly touched because she works with LGBTQ youth who are also homeless. She decided to call the producer of the film and invite her to screen it for her own organization, as well as several others that serve LGBTQ youth in the city. One hundred people came! Claire was thrilled! But then she realized that she still hadn’t spent her money, so she has decided to donate it towards a paid internship with the film producers, a position she hopes will be filled by an LGBTQ youth interested in pursuing a future in film. You can and should buy the film on iTunes!

Cece, another new member initiated by Jasika, is a textile designer. When she received the $100 the first thing she thought of was the samples which are often donated to poor and homeless youth. They’re great clothes, but they always have a hole cut in them to signify that they aren’t the final version of the designer’s plan. Usually Cece will just iron on a cheap patch to cover this up, but with her $100, she decided to buy a bunch of fun materials—fake jewels and sparkles and the like—to decorate the patches so that the clothes feel really special to the kids who get them.

Debbie and Marco, initiated by Courtney, also struggled long and hard over what to do with their $100, especially after Marco was laid off of his job as a graphic designer. When they heard that their local JCC had planned a bunch of opportunities to mark the Day of Service (MLK Day), they decided that they would participate and bring their $100 along, just to see what needed doing. When they arrived, the place was flooded with volunteers—too many, in fact. But Debbie tracked down one of the coordinators and found out that there was an impromptu bake sale going on that had just run out of supplies. Using her $100 to buy cookie and brownie ingredients would be a huge help. It turned out that the bake sale was designed to raise money for Kids Versus Cancer in order to honor a three year old student at the JCC preschool who had died just last week.

Rachel, also initiated by Courtney, teaches at a school for girls in Massachusetts. Sustainability and environmentalism are new passions of hers, having grown up in a household where it felt like recycling just wasn’t that important in the shadow of her family’s Holocaust history. She decided to give her $100 to some students who were buying re-usable grocery bags, decorating them, and selling them to folks in their neighborhood as part of an initiative to cut down on plastic and paper bag usage.

Brandon, initiated by Chris R., was also facing the tough economy as a graphic designer. He had a good friend who had just been laid off of a torturous job at Yahoo in advertising, and was inspired by the friend’s attitude. He felt it was a gift of time to really work on promoting his band full force while he had the cushion of unemployment coming in. Brandon decided to use the $100 to create a kick-ass press kit for his friend’s band. He initiated the help of another friend with an expertise in PR. Check out their stuff at: www.kindmonitor.com.

Last year, Jessi and Creighton—initiated by Chris R.—did an amazing photo collage of New Yorkers holding up the words of the I Have a Dream speech in honor of MLK. This year, they also wanted to do something MLK-related, so they looked up all of the events listed at Obama’s site for the Day of Service. One activity particularly caught their eye—an MLK march designed by some students in Mr. Sussman’s 8^th grade history class at Manhattan Country School. They went along, quite stealthily, took pictures, and then wrote the kids this very serious letter:

“Do not be alarmed, but we have been watching you. As your group is known for it’s strong academic performance as much as its commitment to social justice, you naturally caught our attention. You see, we are the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy, and we share your desire for change.”

They also decided to screen print some t-shirts, celebrating the twin occasions of MLK Day and Obama’s inauguration, which they will be selling so they can send the students even more than $100. We look forward to hearing what these enterprising kids do with all that money…

And finally, Andrew and friends, new members initiated by Courtney, decided to create the New York Conversation Exchange (NYCE). They offered strangers $1 for every two minutes of conversation they had with another stranger, $6 for a walk around the park with a stranger holding hands, and $1 to tell a stranger a secret. Don’t miss the amazing video.

You can watch the short on iTunes or Netflix.

I think this style of giving really does cause you to question why we give and what goes into the the decisions we make about who is worthy of our generosity. But for me the whole process was fraught. Because this process involves reporting back, I felt some weird pressure to give in a way that had a good story to it. And I’m not sure that’s what should motivate our giving decisions. I also felt consumed to find someone who appeared exceptionally needy and ran into the same ethical/moral/philosophical quandaries that hit you any time you choose to give to one person or cause over another — why help here when there is greater suffering there? And because 100 is an amount that would feel generous in some circumstances (a tip to a taxi driver), but miniscule in others (to someone who is being evicted from an apartment), I found myself searching for those who were not suffering too badly but for whom any little bit would provide a welcome treat. That all said, when I ultimately gave my hundred away, I did it on a lark. Last weekend, I was visiting my 94-year-old grandmother and told her about this experiment. She immediately said, “Why are you looking so hard when we have so many people struggling in our own family?” I realized she was right and when I got home, I sent a card to a cousin of mine who lives in Florida and whom I rarely talk to. She’s a single mom and recently had a hard time with a lot of dental work that has left her financially strapped. I’d missed her birthday last month so I sent her the money with a card telling her to buy something she wants or needs. Then I got my next round of guilt. Why didn’t I just send her a hundred of my own and help someone even more in need?

As the Oprah empire started rolling out advertisements for her latest adventure — a reality television show called “Oprah’s Big Give” — my inbox and voicemail were flooded by friends and family claiming indignantly, “Oprah stole your idea!” They were referring to Oprah’s new show, in which participants compete every week to give away large amounts of her money in a short amount of time — and in a way that will please a team of judges.

I wasn’t that mad. After all, it’s not the worst thing to be ripped off by the most successful communicator in the universe and, let’s face it, Oprah’s “idea people” probably weren’t lurking at KGB Bar listening to my friends and I tell stories about slipping $20 bills in young adult fiction books at the Brooklyn Public Library.

You see, two years ago, I started The Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy. Not so secret, but indeed creative, the project consisted of me giving ten of my friends one hundred dollars and inviting them to, in turn, give that money away. Then my whole motley crew gathered together at a bar, imbibed, and told the stories of their forays into guerilla giving (no competition involved). It was so fun in 2006 that we did it again in 2007, and the second time, some of the original recipients gave away their own hundreds. It’s become a bit like Pay It Forward, without the annoyance of Haley Joel Osment.

Read more here.

For more, check out bubba56′s YouTube channel. Thanks Bub!

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